4. Prepare a detailed outline for the investigation. A detailed outline should be prepared beforehand, and the investigator should ask questions according to the outline, with those present at the meeting giving their answers. Any points which are unclear or doubtful should be put up for discussion. The detailed outline should include main subjects and sub-headings and also detailed items. For instance, taking commerce as a main subject, it can have such sub-headings as cloth, grain, and other necessities and medicinal herbs; again, under cloth, there can be such detailed items as calico, homespun and silk and satin.

5. Personal participation. Everyone with responsibility for giving leadership -- from the chairman of the township government to the chairman of the central government, from the detachment leader to the commander-in-chief, from the secretary of a Party branch to the general secretary -- must personally undertake investigation into the specific social and economic conditions and not merely rely on reading reports. For investigation and reading reports are two entirely different things.

6. Probe deeply. Anyone new to investigation work should make one or two thorough investigations in order to gain full knowledge of a particular place (say, a village or town) or a particular problem (say, the problem of grain or currency). Deep probing into a particular place or problem will make future investigation of other places or problems easier.

7. Make you own notes. The investigator should not only preside at fact-finding meetings and give proper guidance to those present but also should make his own notes and record the results himself. To have others do it for him is no good.